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November 29, 2008
Hughes, Krabbenhoft guide UW to 67-46 win
Tom Lea
BadgerBlitz.com MADISON, Wis. - Chalk this one up as a team victory. The Wisconsin men's basketball team utilized 14 of its 16 active players, had three scorers in double digits, out rebounded its opponent by 11, dominated defensively in the second half and cruised to an easy 67-46 win over Wisconsin-Milwaukee in front of Saturday's Kohl Center crowd.
"We just ran our offense," junior guard Trevon Hughes, who finished with a game high 16 points, said. "You know, made the extra passes and getting open (down) low. We have unselfish people on this team, and sometimes too unselfish. We had our shooters open, our big men making plays in the post and our shots followed."
The Badgers shot 44 percent for the game as a team, but its top three scorers faired even better. Hughes as well as Landry and Krabbenhoft, who each finished the game with 12 points, shot a blistering 60 percent from the floor. That hot shooting sparked a 32-9 run that started with 4:39 left in the first half and did not end until there were just less than nine minutes left and in turn, blew what was a 24-23 game, wide-open.
"We talked about it in the locker room," Krabbenhoft, who also finished with 10 rebounds, three assists, one block and zero turnovers, said. "We wanted to go out there and play hard and do those things and the score will take care of itself and that's what it did."
The Panthers hung with the Badgers for the majority of the first half, even opening up a five-point lead in the early stages. Freshman forward Tony Meier scored eight quick points as UWM either held the lead, or were close up until UW's big run late in the half.
"I think that the first 17 minutes of the game, we seemed to be doing the things that follow in a game plan," Rob Jeter, UWM head coach and former longtime assistant under Bo Ryan, said. "We seemed to be in tune to what we are trying to accomplish. That last three minutes of the first half, which then carried over to the second half with the dry spell, was really just a big part of the lack of success tonight." Entering the game, UWM's Avery Smith was averaging 16 points per game for the Panthers. During Saturday afternoon's contest though, he was held to two points on only 1-of-3 shooting in 25 minutes of play. His lack of productivity, as well as the suspension of the Tony Franklin hurt UWM in the end.
"(We) played very well that way," UW head coach Bo Ryan said in regards to his team defense on the Panthers leading scorer. "We were trying to make Avery handle some cuts, handle some things that we were doing with ball screens, try to take him off the offensive end a little bit. Pop (Hughes) did an excellent job of positioning."
Once again, Wisconsin has a quick turnaround as it will fly out to Blacksburg, Virginia to take on the Virginia Tech Hokies Monday night as part of the annual Big Ten/ACC challenge.
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